518 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Dr. Dwiglit (1900) describes the first winter plumage of the male 

 as "above, including wings and tail, brownish olive-green almost 

 exactly like G. trichas^ but usually greener and grayer. Below, un- 

 like G. trichas, being canary-yellow, washed on the sides with pale 

 olive-brown, and with broccoli-brown on the throat often concealing 

 cinereous gray, the chin wood-brown. The orbital ring conspicuously 

 pale buff." 



He says that the first nuptial plumage is acquired by a partial pre- 

 nuptial molt, "involving much of the head and throat, which become 

 clear plumbeous or ashy gray instead of brown, slightly veiled with 

 olive-brown on the pileum and with drab-gray on the throat, the orbi- 

 tal ring white." 



A complete postnuptial molt in summer produces the adult winter 

 plumage, which "differs from the first winter dress in being cinereous 

 gray instead of brown on the head and throat, palest on the chin, and 

 slightly veiled with drab-gray on the throat, and olive-green on the 

 crown. The back is greener and the yellow below rather brighter. 

 The orbital ring is white. The birds with deeper plumbeous throats 

 are probably still older. This dress differs but little from the nuptial, 

 a fact not generally known." 



The adult nuptial plumage is "acquired perhaps by a partial pre- 

 nuptial moult as in the young bird or possibly by wear alone." 



The female, in first winter plumage, is "browner above and on the 

 throat than the male, but often indistinguishable. The first nuptial 

 is acquired chiefly by wear. The adult winter is similar to the first 

 winter but rather grayer on the throat resembling the male in first 

 winter dress. The adult nuptial and later plumages are never as gray 

 as those of the male." 



Food. — ^Very little seems to be known about the food of the Con- 

 necticut warbler. Audubon (1841) observed two "chasing a species of 

 spider which runs nimbly over the water, and which they caught by 

 gliding over it, as a Swallow does when drinking. * * * On 

 opening them I counted upwards of fifty of the spiders mentioned 

 above, but found no appearance of any other food." 



Dr. B. H. Warren (1890) says that it "feeds on beetles, larvae, 

 spiders, snails and sometimes on small seeds and berries." 



Behavior. — ^Wliile with us on the fall migration, the Connecticut 

 warbler is not particularly shy, though rather retiring. As we find it 

 in the swampy thickets or in damp meadows among scattered bushes, 

 we may see it walking quietly on the ground, or starting up when dis- 

 turbed, it stops to perch on some low branch, watching us intently for 

 several seconds before seeking the seclusion of the denser shrubbery. 

 These birds are excessively fat in the fall, so fat in fact that it is 



